Oct 7, 2021

The virtual clinical trials market studied was anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 5.9 % during the forecast period. The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down population movements and transport systems across large parts of the world, preventing many clinical trial patients from attending trial sites and restricting principal investigators (PIs) and other clinical staff to their homes. Hence the flurry of trial delays and cancellations. Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co., Eli-Lilly & Co. are among the growing list of companies to have announced a stop to new trial starts, and pauses to recruitment into existing studies, for the next several weeks. According to Continuum Clinical analysis reports published in April 2020, around 30% of the surveyed clinical trial locations are expected to have a significant impact on both enrolling patients for new trial studies and keeping patients who are currently enrolled on track with their study schedules. According to report published by Congressional Budget Office, in April 2020, approximately 30 pharmaceutical or biotech companies had reported a trial disruption. This is where the virtual trial comes into play with telemedicine and digital technologies developed by pharmaceutical and biotech companies to reduce the clinical trials disruption. The virtual clinical trials market is driven by the growing digitization in the healthcare sector growth in R&D activities and the adoption of telehealth. For example, in February 2020, Johnson & Johnson launched the Heartline virtual trial design study to see if the Apple Watch and new iPhone app could reduce the risk of stroke by detecting cardiac arrhythmia. Virtual clinical trials have higher recruitment rates, better compliance, lower drop-out rates, and are conducted faster than traditional clinical trials. Moreover, advancements in technology such as the launch of web-based clinical trials, collaborations between clinical research companies, biotechnology companies and pharmaceutical, and support initiatives from governments are expected to boost the market. For example, In November 2020, Parexel came into collaboration with the Clinical Trial Center (CTC). This collaboration will increase the research capacity of delivering early Phase clinical trials. It will also support the rising demand and continuation of early phase clinical studying during the pandemic. Similarly. In October 2020, Oracle collaborated with FHI Clinical for improving the efficiency of the clinical trial and helped in getting therapies to market faster Additionally, the increasing occurrence of people suffering from chronic diseases such as heart diseases, infectious diseases, neurological diseases, and the rising geriatric population are some of the factors that propel the growth virtual clinical market. For instance, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2021), in the United States, on an average 6 out of 10 people are suffering from a chronic disease, and 4 out of 10 people are suffering from two or more, resulting in the leading cause of death in the country. According to WHO, In 2020, chronic diseases accounted for almost three-quarters of all deaths worldwide, and that 71% of deaths due to ischaemic heart disease (IHD), 75% of deaths due to stroke, and 70% of deaths due to diabetes will occur in developing countries. With increasing burden of diseases, it is expected to increase the demand for the development of new drugs. This is further anticipated to fuel the technological development in the healthcare industry and thereby, augment the market growth. However, a greater amount of collection data, prove and manage reliability to the regulators, technology failure, data accuracy, are some of the challenges that are anticipated to hamper the growth of the global virtual clinical trials market. Key Market Trends The Oncology Segment is Expected to Occupy a Significant Share of the Market Over the Forecasts Period The oncology segment is expected to dominate the market over the forecasts period due to increasing government initiatives for cancer awareness, rising in the prevalence of cancer, increasing R&D activities on the development of cancer drugs, therefore, increases the number of oncological trials. According to Globocan 2020 fact sheet, an estimated 19,292,789 cancer cases were diagnosed with 9,958130 death due to cancer. The worldwide cancer burden is rising, worldwide. Virtual clinical trials minimize the cancer patient's risk (risk of Immunosuppression, travel burden, therapeutic diversity, and regulatory complexity) and by decreasing time spent on face-to-face trial visits. To keep patients safe, oncology clinical trial investigators and sponsors have quickly incorporated virtual and remote trials. In October 2019, Georgetown University Medical Center used cloud-based virtual interconnected computing techniques for deducting the time in accessing cancer patients' profiles. which indicates that the number of cases virtually assessed augmented from 46 to 622 as compared to the conventional assessments from 3 to 14 cases from 2014-2017. According to National Clinical Trials, in April 2020 there are around 8306 clinical trials on oncology across the various phases of development. As the number of clinical trials increased there are higher chances of increasing the demand for virtual clinical trials. Thus above-mentioned factors are expected to drive the segment over the forecasts period North America is Currently Dominating the Virtual Clinical Trials Market and is Expected to Continue in the Forecasts Period Geographically, North America accounts for one of the largest revenue holders in the global virtual clinical trials market due to the presence of major companies that manufacture pharmaceuticals coupled with rising government and companies that focus on investment in the development of new medicines. In November 2019, Janssen pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in collaboration with the PRA Health Sciences, launched a digital clinical trial set-up CHIEF-HF a completely decentralized, indication-seeking, mobile clinical study. The company aims to utilize wearable devices and smart technology to efficiently gather and analyze evidence for assessing the effectiveness of Canagliflozin in the populace with heart failure with the presence or absence of type 2 diabetes. Moreover, the region is expected to continue its dominance over the forecasts period. This can be attributed to increasing R&D in this region, increasing the adoption of new technologies in clinical research, and government support. Furthermore, market players are also using digital technologies to meet client needs. For instance, In year 2020, Parexel performed more than 100 decentralized trials including hybrid and virtual/decentralized approaches. However, due to an increase in cancer cases and other chronic diseases, the virtual clinical trials market is likely to boost significantly throughout the forecast period. Competitive Landscape The virtual clinical trials market is highly competitive and consists of several major players. The players operating in this market are operating on different competitive factors such as experience in the pharmaceutical, experience in clinical trials, and investment in technology. The strategies adopt by the market participants are Partnerships, Collaborations, agreement, product launch, and product expansion. The players namely Clinical Ink inc., IQVIA Holdings, Inc., ICON PLC, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Covance, Inc.), LEO Innovation Lab., Dassault Systemes SE (Medidata Solutions, Inc.), Oracle Corporation, Parexel International Corporation, Medable, Inc. and Signant Health. Reasons to Purchase this report: The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format 3 months of analyst support Key Topics Covered: